Joining the PKK to flee forced marriage to old man
Güncelleme Tarihi:
DoÄŸan News Agency
OluÅŸturulma Tarihi: Ocak 23, 2009 00:00
DİYARBAKIR - A former female member of the terror organization PKK, who surrendered to the authorities told a Diyarbakır court Wednesday that she had fled her home at the age of 14 to escape being married to an older man.
The 33-year-old former PKK member said she worked as a nurse in the PKK camps and that she stayed in a cave for many years and never saw the light of day. The court decided to release the former PKK member who had surrendered Oct. 6, 2008 because she never participated in armed action.Â
In her address to the court, the woman said: "When I was 14 years old, one of my neighbors was trying to force their 14-year-old girl to marry a man her grandfather’s age. The girl did not want it. In our community, it is normal for young girls to marry very old men. I was scared it would happen to me so both of us left home and joined the PKK, seeing it as a way out."
She said after reaching Mount Küpeli in the Şırnak region of the southeastern Hakkari province, they came across PKK members. Four days after joining the group, they were seen by soldiers and in the resulting firefight, she was shot in her shoulder. She was treated in a cave and was taught how to be a nurse. "I was separated from my friend. I never saw her again and later learned she had been killed. In 1998, I went to the Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq. There were three doctors, one German, one Syrian and a local.
"After I was shot, I regretted ever leaving home but I never thought of running away because I was in the cave most of the time and did not know my surroundings. I thought I would be tracked down and killed if I escaped," she said.
She was sent to a hospital in Mosul for a kidney infection in 2003 and from there she fled to Syria with the help of others and stayed there at a friend’s home for five years working as a cleaner. She said she did not want to surrender to Turkish authorities because she was told she wound be sent to prison for life. "Years later, my father found me and told me those who surrendered were being freed. I illegally entered the country and surrendered at the Birecik Gendarmerie Command in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa," she said. According to the Turkish Penal Code members of terrorist groups who have never participate in armed action are released if they surrender.
In her address to the court, the woman said: "When I was 14 years old, one of my neighbors was trying to force their 14-year-old girl to marry a man her grandfather’s age. The girl did not want it. In our community, it is normal for young girls to marry very old men. I was scared it would happen to me so both of us left home and joined the PKK, seeing it as a way out."
She said after reaching Mount Küpeli in the Şırnak region of the southeastern Hakkari province, they came across PKK members. Four days after joining the group, they were seen by soldiers and in the resulting firefight, she was shot in her shoulder. She was treated in a cave and was taught how to be a nurse. "I was separated from my friend. I never saw her again and later learned she had been killed. In 1998, I went to the Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq. There were three doctors, one German, one Syrian and a local.
"After I was shot, I regretted ever leaving home but I never thought of running away because I was in the cave most of the time and did not know my surroundings. I thought I would be tracked down and killed if I escaped," she said.
She was sent to a hospital in Mosul for a kidney infection in 2003 and from there she fled to Syria with the help of others and stayed there at a friend’s home for five years working as a cleaner. She said she did not want to surrender to Turkish authorities because she was told she wound be sent to prison for life. "Years later, my father found me and told me those who surrendered were being freed. I illegally entered the country and surrendered at the Birecik Gendarmerie Command in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa," she said. According to the Turkish Penal Code members of terrorist groups who have never participate in armed action are released if they surrender.